The Armor set several franchise record in their win over the BayHawks.
Clik here to view.
Tornike Shengelia, on assignment from the Brooklyn Nets, scored a team-high 26 points for the Armor in their win over Erie Monday.
SPRINGFIELD – It will be hard to keep the Springfield Armor out of the NBA Development League playoff race if they continue to play like they did Monday.
Ramone Moore scored all 20 of his points in the fourth quarter and the Armor put a loss on the team they're trying to catch for the final playoff spot, beating the Erie BayHawks 130-112 at the MassMutual Center.
The 130 points were not only a season high but a franchise record for the Armor (14-23), who set several high-water marks on offense.
"Good shots by good shooters usually mean made baskets, and I thought tonight we did a much better job scoring off our defense and getting easy baskets than we have in previous games," Armor coach Bob MacKinnon said. "We started off the game very sluggish, but I thought after that our activity picked up and we were getting deflections and loose balls."
Springfield shot 61.2 percent from the floor and 63.6 percent on 3-pointers, both franchise records. The 52 made field goals and 32 assists were season highs.
"That's what Coach has been preaching a lot – distributing the ball, moving the ball and getting guys open shots – and I think we're buying in," Moore said. "You can see the last few games we've been getting a lot of wins. I honestly believe we should be 7-0, but the last two games didn't go our way in the end. We're playing pretty good basketball right now and I hope it continues."
It's a little hard to believe the Armor actually trailed by two entering the fourth quarter. Erie (20-18) did not go away despite Springfield's superior shooting.
D.J. Kennedy, who always seems to play well against Springfield, had 27 points, eight assists and six rebounds to lead the BayHawks to a 93-91 lead after three.
But Moore, who was 0 for 2 entering the fourth, was nearly perfect in the final 12 minutes, hitting 8 of 9 field goals and 3 of 4 from behind the arc.
"I just had to stay ready and I have to give credit to the other four guys who were on the floor with me," Moore said. "I didn't have a very good first half, so I just tried to keep my focus and go out there and do something."
"I guess he would have had 80 if I played him the whole game," MacKinnon said. "Maybe that's my fault, maybe I need to play him some more."
Moore wasn't alone in the fourth. Paul Carter had not played a minute before turning in two points, three rebounds, three assists and a steal in 12 minutes while Dennis Horner, who had not attempted a field goal in 11 minutes, was 3 for 3 with four rebounds in the fourth.
"Once they got on a run, I was going to put our starters back in, but our starters said, 'Hey, Coach, they're on a roll, let them go,'" MacKinnon said. "That shows you the unselfishness of a Toko and Kris Joseph, that they weren't worried about their numbers."
Tornike "Toko" Shengelia had 26 points and six assists in three quarters while Joseph had 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists, also in three quarters.
The same goes for Ben Uzoh, who had 11 assists to go with six points and four rebounds, and Carleton Scott, who had 18 points.
While the likelihood of a playoff spot is low, the Armor did themselves a favor by beating Erie. They have seven of their next eight games at home, including two more with the BayHawks.
"Now we got to keep building," MacKinnon said. "When we came back from the break, we had 20 games and we tried to break it down into five-game segments. We went 4-1 in the first five-game segment and now we're 1-1 in the second five-game segment. We're going to see what we can do."